Beauty Sleeps
by WingedFlight
Summary: Prince Charming is determined to reach the top of the tower in order to wake the sleeping princess, but will he manage to do it?


_**A/N: **This is just a fun little foray into the land of Fairy Tales. After all, what's better than hopelessly heroic and terrible foolish princes?_

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The dragon reared its ugly head, hissing down at the prince bravely (or perhaps foolishly) holding his sword aloft. The poor man looked more than a little shaken, and no wonder – he had just witnessed a woman on the path transform into a terrifying monster. But rather than run in terror, the prince had planted his feet firmly to the ground and had drawn his sword, staring up into the beast's black eyes with grim determination.

"I will strike your belly, beast, unless you let me pass. Step to the side or feel the bite of my sword!"

The dragon snorted in contempt, smoke puffing from its nostrils. The smoke gave the confrontation a surreal feel, as well as causing the prince's eyes to smart.

"Very well then!" he shouted, tears pouring from his eyes. "You will never see the light of another day!" And with these brave (and very foolish) words, the prince leaped forward, swinging his sword so fast it emitted a loud hum, and struck the dragon's side.

What the prince had not taken into account was the hard, leathery texture of the dragon's flesh. The sword did strike – before bouncing back unexpectedly. The prince had to duck in alarm as the end of his sword broke off, narrowly missing his face. Now all the prince was left with was a broken, near-useless sword, smarting eyes, and an angry dragon.

It was then the prince paused to revaluate his mission. When he had first come to this castle with hope of rescuing the fair maiden inside, he had expected to simply walk in. Even when stopped by the old woman on the road – his mind flew back to the encounter.

"_You do not wish to go in there, young prince."_

_He whirled around to see an old woman beside him, with no evidence as to how she had gotten there. "You know I'm a prince?"_

"_I know a lot of things," she replied. "And you do not wish to go into that castle."_

"_I must rescue the princess inside," the prince declared. "She lies in the tallest tower deep in an enchanted sleep. Only a kiss shall awaken her."_

_So lost was he in envisioning his lips brushing against those of a damsel in distress, he missed what the woman said next._

"_Pardon me?"_

"_And what shall awaken?" the woman repeated cryptically. "You cannot enter the castle."_

_The prince was getting annoyed by the woman's know-it-all attitude. "Who are you to stop me?"_

_The woman's eyes narrowed, and then her body rippled, exploding into a mass of dull green scales and leathery skin – transforming into a dragon before his very eyes!_

The dragon snorted and the prince shook himself from his musings in alarm. Stupid! The dragon could easily have defeated him while he was lost in his thoughts. He'd already made a big enough mistake by pausing to talk to the woman when he should have gone straight to the castle.

The prince clutched his broken sword and realized he was quickly losing hope in defeating the dragon. He seemed doomed to die – or worse, to wander the world a lonely failure – and the enchanted maiden of the castle would never be free.

Thinking this, the prince's resolve hardened, and he let loose a battle cry that surely would have frightened even the bravest of warriors – or at least, that is how the prince thought it sounded. In reality, his battle cry was so high pitched that several ancient stain glass windows of the castle shattered, the sunlight faltered, and even the enchanted maiden turned over in her sleep. As for the dragon, it collapsed to the ground, shuddering and moaning in pain.

The prince held his broken sword aloft in victory, and then lowered it in confusion as the dragon's body shuddered and rippled. Huge, green, sinewy tendrils ripped from the carcass. As the tendrils grew, they swarmed around the castle until it was surrounded by a mass of thick, gigantic, thorny brambles.

If the prince had decided to give up, go home, and have a nice, hot cup of tea, no one would have blamed him. In fact, the prince did consider doing just that, but he couldn't help but think of the poor princess, locked in her enchantment and awaiting her prince.

"I will not fail!" the prince declared, and again, he held his broken sword above his head. Then he swung the sword down, stuck the brambles (to no avail) and emitted his battle cry once more.

More glass shattered, the sunlight flickered, and the enchanted maiden even sat up for a moment in her bed. As for the brambles, they promptly shuddered and collapsed, disintegrating into a pile of dust.

"Now, for the fair maiden!" the prince exclaimed. He sheathed his sword (which had astonishingly survived the battle cry) and ran towards the castle.

The door swung open ominously at the prince's touch, and as he stepped cautiously inside the castle, his steps echoed loudly. The front hall was dark, with few windows, and there was no indication of a way to enter the tower.

"Hello?" the prince called, and instantly regretted it as the sound echoed through the room.

A short exploration of the hall revealed a row of doors along each wall. Having no real idea of where to look, the prince decided he would have to go through each door until he found the enchanted maiden. It would take a long time, but – he filled his mind with thoughts of the maiden.

So deep was he in his imaginings, he almost missed the large wooden sign behind the third door. The prince was in the act of closing the door again when he noticed, and had to reopen the door to read it.

**Be Ware!  
At the Toppe of These Steppes there be Chantmente!**

He had already closed the door and moved on down the hall before the prince realized that it was quite possible the chantment referred to by the sign was related to the enchanted maiden. It took another five minutes to remember which door the sign had been behind, but in the end he did find it, and opened it again to find another dimly lit room, at the back of which was the sign next to a great, spiralling staircase.

The climb was very long and tiring. By the forty second step, the prince was already hot and damp. The fifty third step had a window slit to remind the prince of how high he was. Step seventy two found the prince gasping for breath, and two steps later he nearly decided to sit down for a rest. At the eighty first step the prince caught the faintest glimmer of light, and eighteen steps later, the prince counted step ninety nine as he entered the tower room, wondering if perhaps he had miscounted.

The room was lit by a sickly green light that flickered against the walls, although there was no evident source. It was such a sickly green that the prince felt instantly queasy. In the center of the room stood a large, four-poster bed with curtains drawn closed around it.

The prince strode across the room and pulled away the curtains. There, on the bed – oh, most glorious! – lay the enchanted maiden. Her skin was pale white, her soft hair spread across the pillow like a golden sea, her lips were cherry red. The prince found his eyes drawn to those lips – such glorious lips! – and he leaned down and brushed his mouth against hers.

There was a swirl of magic around him – he could see it clearly. Tiny green lights surrounded him, and he could _feel_ the magic deep in his bones. He could never afterwards remember anymore than that – except for the shock when he saw the maiden's eyes open, and they were red!...

And the next thing he knew, everything around him appeared to have grown tremendously, the not-so-fair-after-all maiden was looking down at him with her red eyes filled with malicious intent, and when he tried to ask her what was going on, the only thing that came out was a loud and very embarrassing _croak_.

But it was only afterwards, when the woman placed a mirror on the floor beside him and the prince took a tentative look, that he realized what had happened. Oh the horror! He had become a laughingstock among princes; doomed to an eternity of mockery should he ever return to the human world again-!

He had been transformed into a _frog._

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_In a side-note, I have been nominated for the 2009 Narnian FanFiction Revolution Awards. I'm up for two catagories: **Best New Author**, and my story **Fantasies** is up for **Best One-Shot.** The link to the ballots are on my profile. Please come vote, and thank you for your support of the 2009 NFFR Awards!_

_Also, thanks to everyone who nominated me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel quite humbled indeed._


End file.
